Why Study Things?
What motivates people to do research?
- Personal motivation.
- Critical need (as observed by experts in the domain).
- Literature search — identify a need.
- Some external impetus.
What’s ‘Good’ Research?
- Addresses important questions that impact science and society.
- Answers the freaking question(s)! — Is there a direct line between questions and conclusions?
- Rigorous1 and replicable by others.
- Generalizable — Does your amazing idea work outside local/trivial/circumscribed settings?
What are the goals?
You can engage in
- Exploration — What are the ‘big’/significant properties of phenomenon G?
- Hypothesis Testing — Is there a difference between X and Y?
- Theory testing — Does theory P explain phenomena Q?
You can engage in measurement versus demonstration.
Really tho: Why Study the World? Philosophy of Science
Antiquity (350 BC – 500AD)
Middle Ages (500 – 1300)
1,500 years of a ‘lull’. Church and theological imperatives dominated that espoused a certain view of knowledge and what was knowable in line with doctrine (e.g. Galileo and Geocentric view).
Scientific Revolution and Renaissance (1300 – 1600)
Enlightenment (1600 – 1800)
Modern period (1880 – 1945)
Late modern period (1945 – today)
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